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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

World Council of Churches Stands By As Christians Perish, Churches Wither

Who needs the WCC any more? Would the world, let alone Middle East Christians, be better off without it?

The World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva claims to represent and
serve 345 churches worldwide. What has it done to help the persecuted
churches in Iraq, Syria and Egypt? Or the flood of Syrian refugees into
Jordan and Lebanon? Answer: it has devoted the whole of 2013 to
promoting a World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel
(September 22-28). That is, it has poured its Swiss francs into
stirring up the one corner of the area that is currently almost calm.

It is not as if it is a secret that Muslim violence in Iraq drove out
half the Christian population within a decade. Or that affiliates of
Al-Qaeda have emptied whole Syrian villages and towns of their Christian
populations. Or that almost a hundred Coptic churches in Egypt were
assailed by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood shortly after President
Morsi was deposed. And that was merely one chapter in the ongoing
martyrdom of the Copts, which has seen 100,000 of them fleeing Egypt
since the downfall of President Mubarak.

All such facts are documented on many websites, above all that of Raymond Ibrahim, which also records the endless attacks on Christians in Pakistan and Nigeria, indeed worldwide, by Muslim groups. Since August 2011, the Gatestone Institute
has published his monthly roundup of such reports. Look at the website
of the WCC, however, and you will hardly notice any awareness of all
that. Instead, the WCC's website is loaded with schemes and resources
relating to the Palestinians. The "resources" offer compilations of
Palestinian propaganda, including calls for the so-called Palestinian
"right of return" (that is, the transformation of Israel into an
Arab-majority state).
The excuse for this absurd imbalance is that the WCC has maintained
for decades, and insists on maintaining against all evidence, that the
churches of the Middle East have no other real problem than the
Palestinian issue. Earlier this year (May 21-25), the WCC held a
conference on "Christian Presence and Witness in the Middle East" near
Beirut, Lebanon. Its closing statement
proclaimed: "Palestine continues to be the central issue in the region.
Resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestine in accordance with
the UN resolutions and international law, will greatly help resolving
the other conflicts in the region."

Rifat
Odeh Kassis, co-author and general coordinator of the WCC's Kairos
Palestine initiative, former head of the WCC's Ecumenical Accompaniment
Programme in Palestine and Israel, and Special Adviser to the WCC's
General Secretary, is pictured above giving an interview to Hezbollah's
Al-Manar TV. (Photo source: Kairos Palestine)

Given the misery that has overwhelmed Christians in the wake of the
so-called "Arab Spring," who in the world still believes such nonsense
except inveterate Jew haters? For sure, the WCC could round up a few of
the latter among bishops in the Middle East, but is that its excuse? How
can any sane well-educated church bureaucrat, of the sort from which
the WCC is recruited, make such a statement only a two-hour ride away
from the turmoil in Syria, which has sent hundreds of thousands of
refugees into the same Lebanon where they were conferring?
Such is the current level of persecution of Christians in Egypt that
even the WCC cannot wholly overlook it. On August 15 last, Rev. Dr. Olav
Fykse Tveit, the WCC General Secretary, sent a brief letter of solidarity
to WCC member churches in Egypt. In the letter, he expressed regret for
"attacks against several churches and properties of the Christian
community." The word "several" shows unawareness that already fifty
churches and a thousand Christian businesses had been set on fire on the
day that President Mursi was dismissed, according to Egyptian attorney Ehab Ramsy. That is, if Tveit did not deliberately understate the severity of Coptic suffering.
The WCC's website informs us
that "in addition to his letter" Tveit remarked that "I hope that this
will not be interpreted as a conflict between Christians and Muslims."
Who did he think was organizing the systematic assault on Egyptian
Christians? Balinese Hindus? Papuan animists? Martians? Even Amnesty
International, which is itself otherwise over-busy with the
Palestinians, dared to mention – in a detailed report
(sixteen pages with ample illustrations) on "Egypt's Christians Caught
between Sectarian Attacks and State Inaction" – that Muslims were
responsible for the attacks.
The 234 words of Tveit's letter constitute the WCC's contribution to
alleviating the suffering of ten million or more Egyptian Christians (it
is part of their misery that Egypt provides no reliable statistics).
Syrian Christians number some two and a half million; the WCC's help for
them consisted of holding a one-day conference
in Geneva on September 18 and issuing a call for peace the next day. By
contrast, for the last decade the WCC has been investing real money
into promoting the Palestinian cause, although a mere 50,000 Christians
dwell in the West Bank and barely a thousand in the Gaza Strip. As an
article titled "The Myth of Palestinian Christianity"
pointed out, there are far more Arabic-speaking Christians in Israel
itself, where they enjoy higher social status (education, income) than
even the Jewish population.
For the Palestinians, the WCC has created a special branch of its
bureaucracy: its Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF). On the WCC's What We Do
page, the item "Churches in the Middle East" is defined as follows:
"This project aims to build a Palestine/Israel Ecumenical Forum as a
space where the entire ecumenical movement can put its collective
energies and resources together for lasting peace." In the Middle East,
that is, the WCC cares only about Palestine and it wants all the
churches in the world to share this exclusive focus.
The PIEF, created in 2007, is the body that organizes the mentioned
"World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel." It has also set up an office
in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Interchurch Center, which seeks to recruit
local Christians for activities that promote the Palestinian cause. An
example is the notorious Kairos Palestine Document,
an initiative created by WCC employees in conjunction with an
unrepresentative handful of local Christians, and which the WCC has
bombarded upon its member churches.
The WCC's most lavishly funded Palestinian project, however, is its
Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), now in
its twelfth year. The dedicated website
of this WCC offshoot defines its purpose as follows: EAPPI "brings
internationals to the West Bank to experience life under occupation.
Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) provide protective presence to vulnerable
communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support
Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace. When they return
home, EAs campaign for a just and peaceful resolution to the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict through an end to the occupation, respect
for international law and implementation of UN resolutions."
The "internationals" are recruited mainly from Western Protestant
churches and they spend just three months gaining their "experience"
(read: intensive indoctrination in Palestinian "narratives" the veracity
of which they have no chance to check). Why only three months? Because
this is the length of a standard Israeli tourist visa, so they can come
and go as tourists without being noticed. On their return, they are
required to spend as much time touring their churches to promote the
message that they have learned.
Here we see the real evil that results from this scheme. Through
EAPPI, the bureaucracies of the rich Protestant churches have been
convinced that the only thing that they need to worry about in the
Middle East is the Palestinian situation. All the mission resources of
Western Protestants are focused on Palestine and their relevant
bureaucrats are just as totally obsessed with the issue as is the WCC
itself. The persecuted Christians of Iraq, Syria and Egypt may as well
go hang.
Why, one might ask, has the WCC not even thought of setting up
"accompaniment" programs for countries where Christians are dying and
their churches are withering away? One answer is the preposterous lie
propagated by the WCC, as quoted above: that Palestine is the "central
issue" and that solving this issue will rescue the Christians perishing
elsewhere in the Middle East.
Another answer is sheer cowardice. The main task of EAPPI
internationals, apart from listening to unverifiable Palestinian tales,
is to watch Palestinians go through Israeli checkpoints. The number of
checkpoints has been drastically reduced in recent years and the Israeli
authorities are introducing quicker and surer means of identification,
so not much risk there. If the EAPPI internationals want a little whiff
of danger, they can go on a Friday to watch – from a safe distance of
course – a ritual battle between Palestinian youths throwing stones and
Israeli soldiers responding with tear gas. In Egypt or Syria, on the
other hand, they would have faced a real danger from machine guns, arson
or bombardment with conventional and chemical weapons.
Fortunately for the Christians of the Middle East, the Vatican never
joined the WCC and merely sends observers on the rare occasions when the
WCC remembers its original purpose: to encourage theological
discussions about divided Christianity. In Syria and Egypt,
Catholics of the Franciscan Order, among others, are courageously
facing serious danger in providing aid to persecuted Christians of all
denominations.
Unlike the WCC and the Western Protestant churches influenced by its
obsession with Palestine, the Russian Orthodox Church has assumed a real
financial burden on behalf of Syrian Christians. In August this year,
the Moscow Patriarchate transferred over a million dollars
to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch to aid them. "Donations
were coming from dioceses, parishes, monasteries, and individuals from
various cities, including Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg,
Syktyvkar, Saransk, Murmansk, Pskov, Orenburg, Volgograd, Tula, and even
Krymsk which underwent devastating floods last year," the Moscow
Patriarchate noted. "Money was also transferred to the account of the
Department for Church Charity and Social Service from Israel, Armenia,
Italy, Germany, and other countries."
Yes, even Russian Orthodox in Israel made a contribution. Likewise,
the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is working among Syrian
refugees in Jordan. There are also Jewish groups in Israel
that have taken upon themselves the dangerous task of supplying food
and medical supplies to victims of Syria's civil war. At the same time,
hundreds of wounded Syrians have been smuggled into Israel
to receive medical care in hospitals, provided free, while the Israeli
army has set up a field hospital near the border for less urgent cases.
In Israeli medical institutions, of course, Muslims and Christians work
alongside Jews to provide treatment for everyone, enabling easy
communication with Syrian Arabs. So here is the paradox: the WCC
relentlessly spreads discredit of Israelis in churches worldwide, while
Israelis are doing vastly more than the WCC to help victims of the
violence in Syria.
Let us note what the WCC is, and what it is not. It describes itself
as an organization of "345 member churches representing over 500
million Christians in more than 110 countries and territories." This
aspect of its existence, however, is in evidence only once every few
years when it organizes an assembly or a conference. For the rest of the
time, the WCC is no more than a bunch of bureaucrats at its Geneva
office. Its activities and declarations are determined by them and them
alone. When one of them retires, the others choose a successor.
Preponderantly, they come from a small number of Protestant churches in
North America and northern Europe. Exceptionally, during 2004-2009 the
General Secretary was a Kenyan, but he suddenly resigned after questions were raised about his doctorate. The current incumbent, Tveit, is a Norwegian Lutheran.
Those Protestant churches are the ones most in thrall to the WCC's Palestinian agenda. Consider, for example, Robert O. Smith,
who is a co-moderator of the WCC's PIEF, as well as covering Europe and
the Middle East on behalf of a major US Lutheran church (the ELCA).
Smith is constant critic, or rather denigrator, of Christian Zionism,
whether in his doctorate, his articles or a recent book.
Another example is the US Presbyterians (PCUSA). Their Middle East
bureaucrats have for years tried to drag the church into a
pro-Palestinian stance. Many of the laity, however, are opposed, whether
because of sympathy for Israel or resentment at being dictated to by
those bureaucrats. So every two years a battle is fought out at the
PCUSA's General Assembly. Both sides invest large amounts of money to
muster support, money that desperately poor Egyptian Coptic families
could have used much better. To date, the bureaucrats have mostly lost,
but only until the next General Assembly.
In the PCUSA, at least, Presbyterian democratic principles still
function. Not so in various European Protestant churches, where the
laity is less able to exert itself. Elsewhere, I have documented how
deeply flawed pro-Palestinian reports were officially accepted by the British Methodists and the Church of Scotland.
The first major church to go in this direction, however, was the Church
of Sweden. In such instances, what has arrived is a new kind of
replacement theology: the Palestinians have become the Chosen People and
the Kairos Palestine Document takes precedence over the Bible. Indeed,
while these churches encourage severe criticism of the Bible, Kairos
Palestine is treated as infallible Holy Writ.
It is not surprising that churches that have discarded the
fundamentals of Protestant theology have also suffered a massive drop in
membership, financial crises and a general loss of direction in recent
decades. That connection was pointed out in a masterly analysis
by Dexter Van Zile three years ago; the intervening time has merely
confirmed it. He wrote when PCUSA membership was dropping at around 3%
annually; in 2012 it was 5.26%. ELCA membership has dropped 5.95%, 4.98% and 2.68% during 2010-2012.
The agenda of the WCC's conferences and assemblies, along with any
statements issued, are also determined in Geneva. A Franciscan friend
was once invited to such a show. When he arrived, he was told that his
task was to read out a greeting from the Christians of the Holy Land.
Looking at the text that was thrust into his hand, he protested that he
had never seen it before, that he had certainly not brought it from the
Holy Land, and that there were things obviously wrong in it. No, he was
told, he must read it out exactly as it was.
Similarly, the upcoming Tenth Assembly of the WCC (October
30-November 8 in Busan, Korea) is already fully predetermined. The theme
dictated from Geneva, "God of life, lead us to justice and peace," is a
giveaway: "peace and justice" is a familiar slogan of pro-Palestinian
propaganda. The Handbook
of the Tenth Assembly indeed shows that EAPPI and Kairos Palestine will
be strongly featured, along with the "Eco-Justice of Palestine."
What is Eco-Justice, one might wonder? Answer: "The speakers will
address the daily injustices of the occupation and the critical
condition of the environment in the Holy Land. Water shortage, issues of
solid-waste management and food sovereignty, are all pressing concerns
for Palestinians. Addressing how these concerns affect the human
population economically, culturally, and psychologically, the workshop
will inform participants about eco-justice and foster a discussion on
the necessity for international solidarity on this issue."
Just don't expect them to mention such issues as the Palestinian
Authority's refusal to engage in joint sewage treatment projects with
Israel, the immense wastage in the leaky water mains of Palestinian
cities, or the illegally dug wells that have caused the water table of
Gaza to become polluted with seawater. No, the Palestinians will make
Israel the scapegoat, as usual, for all their own sins against the
environment.
At the beginning of last year, Prof. Haim Gwirzman of Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center published a total refutation of all the often-repeated Palestinian lies about their water situation. A summary of his findings can also be found here.
It is typical of Palestinian propaganda, however, that the same old
lies are constantly repeated, never mind how often or how thoroughly
they have been refuted. And never mind when Christians do the same. When
Israel is to be besmirched, truth is immaterial – just one of the links
between anti-Israelism and antisemitism.
On the other hand, the words "Syria," "Egypt," "Iraq" and "Lebanon" occur nowhere in the Handbook
for the WCC's upcoming assembly. The word "Jordan" features only in the
name of the "Environmental Education Center of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Jordan and the Holy Land," the presenter of the nonsense
workshop on "Eco-Justice." Once again, the WCC will totally ignore the
truly pressing miseries of Middle East Christians in favor of
pro-Palestinian agitation.
Yes, you may object, but surely there is much more on the agenda of
the Tenth Assembly? Put it the other way round: if the other sessions
are on a similarly low level, why go half way round the world to get
there? Let whoever can spare the time look throughout the Handbook
and draw their conclusions. They may find that the WCC is unconcerned
about what is on offer, provided that all participants go home with a
fixation on Palestine.
This leads to a broader question: Who needs the WCC any more? Would
the world, let alone Middle East Christians, be better off without it?
When the WCC was founded in 1948, it was highly unusual that leaders of
diverse churches conferred together. Today it is commonplace and
facilitated by quick and cheap air transport. Popes and prelates whizz
around everywhere. If the WCC simply disappeared, it would end a
convenient parking place for Protestant bureaucrats who feel bored or
out of place in their particular churches. But who else would miss it?
As for this year's "World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel," its impact seems to have been rather small. PIEF published a brief note about participation "in at least 22 countries worldwide" together with a more detailed list.
It amounts to saying that in just 20% of the WCC's "more than 110
countries and territories" at least one church responded. In Germany,
for instance, only an event in the city of Essen is mentioned. Under
"USA" no events are listed, just prayers issued by a board of the United
Methodist Church and by the Presbytery of Atlanta. In "Russia and
Ukraine" only a Methodist church participated. It can hardly be
described as a mass movement. Rather, it is a sectarian cult with its
own comic rituals.
One of those rituals is a "game of chance" called "Occupation: a game
of life." It is modeled upon "snakes and ladders" and is supposed to
depict Palestinian misery. You can see here
Bishop William Kenny and Rev. Paul Dean hopping around in this fashion
under the gaze of Palestinian Lutheran Bishop Younan in London. The
inventors of this game call themselves "Embrace the Middle East," so
they ought to invent versions for Syrian and Egyptian Christians under
the rubric of "a game of death." ("Monopoly," after all, is available in
all sorts of national versions.) Only then the hopping clerics would
have to simulate horrible deaths on certain squares. On others, they
would have to empty their pockets to pay the jizya tax extorted from Copts by Muslim gangsters.
The WCC's own contribution was to be a mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
but it seems not to have materialized. PIEF's list does not mention it.
There were rumors about a couple of dozen such "pilgrims" receiving
intensive instruction in a Bethlehem convent, a kind of EAPPI crash
course. If it happened, it was minimal in comparison with the thousands
of Christian Zionists who, that same week, were at the Feast of
Tabernacles Conference organized by the International Christian Embassy
in Jerusalem. The Israeli press noticed only the latter, marching
through the streets and waving their national flags amid a traditional
parade of Israeli organizations.
During those very days, September 22-28, the world media had no time
for the WCC; all eyes were fixed on the attack upon a shopping mall in
Kenya by Somali Muslim terrorists. Everyone heard and read the
horrifying reports of how the terrorists first dismissed any who could
prove themselves to be Muslims, then inflicted grotesque tortures on
others before murdering them. Fear of Islamic extremism, not worrying
about Palestine, has the stronger grip on most in the West.
Even the Palestinian press seems to have ignored the WCC's scheme. Inspection of the pages of Al-Quds
for that week did not turn up any reference, though various other
delegations were duly recorded. Maybe some event among those listed by
PIEF under "Palestine" was mentioned somewhere, but the reference must
have been very brief.
Finally, let us look at PIEF's recommendation for church services
on Sunday, September 22. It was entitled "To pray you need a military
permit" and consisted of a twofold ritual. First of all: "Block your own
church entrance with barbed wire or a barrier, explaining that members
of the congregation do not have the proper permit to enter church." This
is certainly more convenient than sending in gunmen to shoot
indiscriminately, throw bombs, tear down and destroy pictures, smash
crosses, and set the place on fire. That is, if they wanted to simulate
the experience of Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan or Nigeria.
The second part of the ritual was to read aloud a statement issued by
the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem last Easter, after a fracas at a
police barrier in the Old City of Jerusalem. The statement complained
about "great sorrow and pain for some of our faithful because they were
ill-treated by some Israeli policemen."
Well, you can see for yourselves a video of the incident. Although the Jerusalem Post
obligingly entitled the story "Video shows Jerusalem Police assault
elderly priest," the video tells a different story. The priest concerned
obviously tried to force his way through a police barrier and had to be
restrained. Anyone less august might have been arrested for defying
police instructions and using force against police officers.
One who has observed many Easters in Jerusalem can easily explain
what the police procedure is. The problem is that streets around the
Holy Sepulchre are very narrow, making it almost impossible for large
numbers of people to move simultaneously in both directions. So the
police cordon off the whole area with barriers and establish distinct
entry points and exit points, such that the flow of the faithful is
always in one direction.
The priest concerned, identified as the head of the Coptic Church in
Ramallah, only needed to go to one of the designated entry points. But
he thought that he and his friends should be an exception; when he tried
to force his way through somewhere else, the police stopped him. The
Copts were furious and the Heads of Churches, irrespective of the rights
of the matter, issued a statement of solidarity in order to save the
face of the Coptic Church.
So we see that it is a plain lie to present such a ritual under the
title "To pray you need a military permit." An appropriate title would
be "To enter the church, please use the north door." At the other doors
of the church, instead of barbed wire, one should hang up such a notice.
But who could get excited about that?

Caroline Glick & Mark Levin: The Israeli Solution -- A One-State Pla

Why Israel Opposes International Forces in the Jordan Valley

U.S. scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel

Yet another indication of the absolute corruption of American academia today. "US scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel," from the Jerusalem Post, December 16: NEW YORK – The 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA), which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to...http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/us-scholars-group-votes-in-favor-of-academic-boycott-of-israel.html

Israel Living Prophecy

A senior New Israel Fund officer told a U.S. official in 2010 that the disappearance of the Jewish state would not be a tragedy, according to a document that was leaked by Wikileaks...She commented that she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic.

Mideast expert Michael Widlanski: Fatah is a joke

US-Israeli talks focus on Ahmadinejad's possible ouster

How to exploit the deep cracks forming in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration for removing the Iranian president was a top item on the agenda of the high-level talks between Barack Obama's advisers and Israeli officials at Mossad headquarters in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Wednesday, July 29.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that Ahmadinejad's cabinet is falling apart; of his original lineup of 21 ministers, only nine remain at their posts.

The Identity Of The Land

Why the Palestinians need to recognize the Jewish State

We do NOT support a 2-state solution

A January 2009 poll found that Americans oppose creating a Palestinian state by 45-31 percent. A February 2009 Maagar Mohot Survey Institute poll has also shown that Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state by 51-32 percent.

Many other polls tell a similar story.

These figures suggest that Americans and Israelis have understood that creating a Palestinian state under current conditions will not bring peace but merely another terror state.

Netanya,Israel

Jerusalem At Night

Why reconstruct Gaza without making demands

- that Shalit be release without convicted terrorists being released by Israel in exchange,

- that the US be put in charge of the southern border to ensure that Hamas isn’t rearmed?

- that their three preconditions be accepted by Hamas, i.e. agree to all former agreements,recognize Israel and renounce terror

- that Hamas amend their Charter

- That Hamas disconnect from Iran

The answer is that they don’t want to.

Children of Hamas

Picture of Hamas children the media does not show you

IDF: Civilian Deaths in Gaza Less than 25% of Total

A maximum of 25% of the Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli operation are innocent civilians, the head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), Col. Moshe Levi, said Wednesday. According to Palestinian medical officials, Israel has killed some 1,000 Palestinians and more than half of them are civilians. Levi said the CLA had compiled a list with the names of 900 Palestinians killed during the fighting. He said that 150 names were of women, children and elderly, and that the maximum number of civilians killed so far was 250. Levi also dismissed claims that 43 Palestinians were killed in an IDF attack on a Hamas terror cell that was firing mortars at Israeli forces from within an UNRWA school in Jabalya. Levi said 21 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including a number of Hamas operatives. (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas teaching the children of Gaza

An Iranian reformist daily newspaper has criticized Hamas "for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals." This is reported in today's Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. The Palestinian daily adds that in response the Iranian government has closed the newspaper.

"The Iranian news agency "Irna" reported yesterday, that the Iranian Culture Ministry has closed the reformist daily newspaper "Karjo Zaran", because it published a report that included criticism of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). On December 30 the paper published a statement of a reformist student organization, that has criticized Hamas for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals. The statement was published whilst the Iranian government expresses a unified stands against Israel, and Tehran is overwhelmed by demonstrations against Israel."

[Al-Ayyam, Jan. 1, 2009] Thanks PMW

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Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments

9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5]1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]Thanks Israel Project

It began with this...

The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917Dear Lord Rothschild,I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate theachievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities inPalestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.2

Signed,Arthur James Balfour[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]

Favorite Books

While Europe Slept

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member

Syria is an Occupier-Are You Listening World?

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the UN. In meticulous detail - supplemented by photographs and satellite images - the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated.

Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil - in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms which amount to an area of about 12 square miles.

It would be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject.

Information worth Possessing

"Israel gave the Palestinians an autonomy in 42% of the West Bank and Gaza after the Oslo accords in the early 90's. Over 92% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were then under the administration of the Palestinian Authority and its Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"Israel is surrounded by 10 hostile Arab countries who do not even recognize its right to exist ( Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia, Aden) and Iran"